75% of younger-aged consumers shop online with their mobile phones. If you own an eCommerce business, that could potentially be an untapped market for you, especially if you find your marketing is as effective as you’d like it to be.
As younger people typically have marketing fatigue, they’re likely to scroll past conventional ads, such as display ads and even email marketing. So how can you get them interested in your products in a refreshing, innovative way?
By utilizing TikTok ads. In this article, we’ll tell you what TikTok is, how TikTok ads work, and how they can help boost your eCommerce sales.
What Is TikTok?
TikTok is a platform that used to be called Musical.ly and it first came out in 2014. At the end of 2018, Bytedance (owner of TikTok) bought Musical.ly and merged the two together into one app.
This platform allows people to create short-form mobile videos. If you were an avid internet user seven years ago, then you probably know the platform Vine, where people uploaded funny and interesting short-form mobile videos that were six seconds, max.
TikTok is similar but is the preferred short-form mobile videos platform today. In fact, Vine was discontinued in 2016, so Vine isn’t a viable option anymore.
The difference between TikTok and Vine is that with Vine, you didn’t have any extras on it; all you could do is record a six-second video, and that was it. With TikTok, you can add music, sound, emoji stickers, face filters, and other free editing tools so you can make your videos more refined.
Another key feature of TikTok is live streaming, which enables you to share things in real-time with the whole world.
How Do TikTok Ads Work?
There are several types of TikTok ads available, and the ways they work depends on which one you pick. Below, we’ll explore each choice you have.
Launch Screen Ad
When the user opens up their TikTok app, your full-screen ad will be displayed. It can be either static, animated, or a video.
In-Feed Ad
This type of ad will autoplay when the user is looking at the “For You” feed. Like the launch screen ad, the in-feed ad will be full screen.
Hashtag Challenge Ad
This is another full-screen ad. The purpose of this type of ad is to encourage TikTok users to create content based on the hashtag you choose. There’s speculation that hashtag challenge ads will come in a bundle with other types of ads, such as the in-feed ad.
How TikTok Ads Can Boost Your eCommerce Sales
If you want to sell products online without handling the inventory yourself, it can be difficult to emerge between the competitions. However, TikTok ads can ensure visibility, because its ads are still not so popular between the advertiser and they can help you scale your best sellers together with your traditional Facebook Campaign. Here’s how.
Get Free Advertising from Your Users
When you utilize something like the hashtag challenge ad, not only is it a refreshing way to market your business, but it’s also a way to get free advertising from your user base.
People on TikTok love making videos, and they certainly love a challenge. When you get your hashtag challenge out there, people will be motivated to create unique content.
Once their video is on TikTok, other app users will see their videos, and by default, your brand name. While you’ll have to pay for the hashtag challenge app, you’ll get tons more free advertising from users who pick up on the challenge, especially from those whose videos go viral.
You Don’t Need to Purchase Niche Ads
When people open their TikTok apps, the great thing is they’ll be shown videos straight away without having to follow any users. This means that your ads will be shown to different types of people without you having to specially purchase niche ads.
Through launch screen ads and regular ones placed in between videos, your ads are definitely going to be seen by your target audiences.
Avoid Marketing Fatigue
The average attention span is eight seconds, which is four seconds lower than it was in 2000; this was right before smartphones became popular. With such short attention spans, the days of traditional minute-long video advertisements are over.
Today, you want to catch people’s attention quickly and keep it. Instead of a minute, you get only a few seconds to condense the information you want to convey.
When you use a TikTok ad, you ensure users who see your ads don’t have marketing fatigue since your ads are only five seconds, tops. TikTok will strategically place your ads in between multiple videos so they won’t annoy users. However, they’ll be frequent enough that you stay top of mind.
You’ll Use the Right Marketing Channel
eCommerce businesses rely almost solely on online sales. If your target audience was elderly, other social media are better, for your campaign, but if you target younger people Instagram and Tiktok are the best places where to start.
Since you know that you want young customers, you have to be where they are and use the tool that they prefer to attract their attention. As we’ve said before, the majority of younger consumers love short videos and do their shopping on their smartphones, so TikTok ads are a great way to get your brand known.
As TikTok is a mobile app, you’re facilitating their customer journey by making your eCommerce shop literally a click away.
See Your Business Boom
So start your TikTok campaign today and take advantage of this new Social Media to be a step ahead to your competitors. With TikTok ads, you can stay top of mind without being too intrusive.
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